mommy update

now I'm sick! swollen tonsils, hurts to swallow, feeling low energy, and like i want to stay in bed all day, hmmm i wonder if pilar will let me do that?! doubt it. i was also planning to go to the mommy's on main festival today with pilar, we have some gifts to buy, and seems like the perfect place to do that. happy saturday. sergio gets home tonight, and i can't wait to hear about his trip!

mini update

lots of ups and downs in these last few days, testing my mom abilities! first the good news: sergio received permission to enter cuba, something he thought would never happen. so he decided to jet down there last minute to see his house one last time before the housing ministry puts another family in there. his mom left a year ago, so the state can now do what they want with it. he grew up in this house, which is also where his dad grew up, and his grandfather had his workshop. it's all he knew for the first 32 years of his life. we almost all decided to go, and even make a holiday out of it at playa pilar, but i am too busy with work contracts, and it's not easy to pick up and go with a baby. soon though, soon.

so here we are at home just us girls, enjoying our time together, getting organized, laundry done etc. i actually did an all nighter 2 nights ago to get a project off my plate, and though i felt exhausted as all hell, i felt good knowing i could then spend more time with the pili. well, last night after i put her to bed, she woke up a few hours later...on fire! she had a raging fever, and the room was dark, she was wimpering, and i had to scramble in the dark, holding her, and try to find her thermometer and tylenol...neither of which she loves. it usually requires me to breastfeed her and hold her tight while sergio performs the medical stuff. so here i was trying to do it all myself, gulp.

holding the syringe with the tylenol in one hand, and my other ONE hand trying to open her mouth and pin down her flailing arms all at the same time. well that did not work. the tylenol went all over the place, mostly on her pajamas. and i really have to say this, why on earth is all this baby medicine flavored to all hell? with fd+c red yellow etc. can that stuff really be good? i would prefer something tasteless that i can just add to her water or juice. anyway that's another rant. so she finally fell asleep and i popped the thermometer under arm for a few minutes, and snuck out to the light to read it...38.9...yikes. fortunately i got some medicine in her and her fever came down quickly.

through the night she rotated from her carriage to the bed at least 10 times last night. she was even wide awake at 4am and we watched some of her baby signing time video. i rocked her in the carriage, i breastfed her, played with her, cuddle her. nothing was working, she still couldn't sleep and moaned a lot. poor baby. i really missed sergio last night. 2 nights without sleep, i felt like a zombie, and kind of lonely not having someone with me to share my misery.

today pilar showed signs of improvement, and even ate most of her dinner. she even signed 'please' for the first time! and we had a few giggle sessions, rolling around on the bed together just being silly. i loved those moments. i hope tonight she can sleep better, so far so good. i am off to join her now, good night!

pilar lucia

hi everyone! well our little p is now one year old, can you believe it? i will continue trying to update her blog, i'm still missing july and august, yikes! her birthday party was a huge success, everyone had fun, including pilar the star. but instead of posting tonight about her birthday, i will do that later, i thought it would be nice to let you know how pilar got her names: pilar lucia.

these two photos show exactly that. the first photo is of a very very beautiful beach in cuba called playa pilar located at the western tip of cayo guillermo. we were there in august of 2006 and we had been told by someone in our hotel that if we were exploring los cayos we shouldn't miss visiting the beach that claims to be the most beautiful beach in all of cuba. when we got there we realized he was probably right. not only is it a public beach, without any hotel or mass tourism, but it is the most gentle, colorful, breathtaking beach i have ever seen. i knew then and there that if i ever had a daughter i would name her pilar, after this breathtaking beach. the beach was a favorite in the 30's and 40's of ernest hemingway, who's boat was named the pilar. you can read more about it here.

sergio and i decided on lucia after i had had a dream one night when i was 8 months pregnant with pilar. we didn't know we were having a girl so we had both a girl's name picked and a boy's name. i couldn't decide on a middle name to go with pilar, but one night i had a dream, and in my dream i was doing the same thing, trying to think of a middle name for my daughter. i came up with the name andalucia, and even in my dream, i was so happy with this choice, and totally excited. when i woke up however, it didn't seem so wonderful, i mean it's the name of a province in spain! I retold my dream to sergio and he laughed, but then after a few seconds he said how about just 'lucia'? and i felt so relieved, it was perfect!

there you go, the story behind pilar's name.

weeeeeeeee

pili loves the swings! they are really close to home, which is great. we take her there after dinner or after breakfast. she loves watching the other kids and babies play around her. this night grandpa mark joined us.

granville island

a few weeks ago we took pilar on her first summer outing! we took her to granville island which is now walking distance since we've moved back to the sogra neighborhood. our first stop was the kids waterpark, which is fab on a hot day! since pili can't walk yet she couldn't enjoy the park as much as the other kids seemed to be doing. we let her get her feet wet and feel the concrete and water under her feet, she found it all very exciting. then we went through the market, and she touched lots of different kinds of fruits and vegetables. then we stopped on the grass for a rest before the walk home again. you can see in one of the photos pilar's awesome yoga moves, I think she was a yogi in her past life, and she could be a ballerina in this life...let's see! anyhoo, pilar saw canadian geese for the first time! we had a great day! enjoy the photos.

the big kiss

Pili loves loves loves making this kiss face. she does it a lot,randomly, when she feels like it, and now she even does it when she is saying goodbye, or she sees someone leaving. it's her little wave goodbye, or goodbye salutation since she can't do either yet. i think it's very charming!

funny mummy

Pili just loves horsing around, and getting tickled, and giggling. precious moments indeed.

browny

Pilar and dad share a moment in the kitchen while mom makes dinner. Pilar is obsessed with little things she can chew on. Everytime she goes by the fridge she inspects all the magnets we have on it. Here she is playing with an old classic magnet of mine from Tamara, a brown baby, you know the ones with movable arms and legs and little eyes that bobble around?

pinky

Pilar got these pink overalls from her grandma sharen, and she loves them! They say 'cutie' on the bum, and she definitely is a cutie! here she is hanging around on the couch, one of her all time favorite places. she loves to stand at the arms and on one side, she drops stuff off the side, and on the other side she plays with the phone base, she is obsessed with the phone base! she discovered the buttons one day and realized that when she pushes them, they do something. like put the volume up or down, play the messages etc.

here she is with one of her oldest friends, piggy. the bubble arms are still around, as you can see because she is wearing her little 'wife beater' tank top from american apparel.

daddy's girl

Sergio and Pili have a very loving, playful relationship, and as a mom, it's so rewarding to know my two loves are so happy together. In these photos Sergio is laying on the floor and Pili is up to her usual horsing around, slapping dad's face to hear the sound it makes, poking around in his mouth, pulling his nose, etc. She also loves pushing on his nipples as if they are buttons, she even makes the associated noise as if they are buzzers, too cute for words. Her two bottom teeth are also easy to see in these smiley photos, enjoy!

hmmmmmm

Well here is one of Pilar's silly days caught on film (digital film that is). She loves our bed, and I mean it's our bed, all three of us! Pilar was actually getting used to her crib, and sleeping there all by herself. Then suddenly one day, she decided she was over it, and will only sleep with us in our bed. I have to admit that I don't really mind. She knows what she needs, and all I can do is respond to her the best I can. I also love sleeping with her there, she's like our cat, if we had one. You know most cats like to sleep on their owner's heads, or very close to them, and this is exactly what Pilar does with us. She sleeps with her feet on dad's face and her head and hands touching me. Periodically through the night this will change several times, and by the morning we are awoken by Pili romping all over the place trying to get us to wake up and play with her. Precious moments I can tell you, I cherish them!